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Chen J, Li W, Li G, Liu X, Huang C, Nie H, Liang L, Wang Y, Liu Y. Targeted liposomes encapsulated iridium(III) compound greatly enhance anticancer efficacy and induce cell death via ferroptosis on HepG2 cells. Eur J Med Chem 2024; 265:116078. [PMID: 38141286 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2023.116078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2023] [Revised: 12/01/2023] [Accepted: 12/18/2023] [Indexed: 12/25/2023]
Abstract
In this study, ligands 2-phenyl-1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline (PIP), 2-(2-nitrophenyl)-1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline (NPIP), 2-(2-nitronaphthalen-1-yl)-1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline (NNIP) and their iridium(III) metal compounds [Ir(ppy)2(PIP)](PF6) (ppy = 2-phenylpyridine, 1a), [Ir(ppy)2(NPIP)](PF6) (1b), [Ir(ppy)2(NNIP)](PF6) (1c) were designed and synthesized. The anti-cancer activities of 1a, 1b and 1c on BEL-7402, HepG2, SK-Hep1 and non-cancer LO2 were detected using MTT method. 1a shows moderate, 1b and 1c display low or no anti-cancer activities. To elevate the anti-cancer effectiveness, encapsulating the compounds 1a, 1b and 1c into the ordinary or targeted liposomes to produce 1alip, 1blip, 1clip, or targeted 1aTlip, 1bTlip and 1cTlip. The IC50 values of 1alip, 1blip, 1clip, 1aTlip, 1bTlip and 1cTlip against HepG2 cells are 7.9 ± 0.1, 8.6 ± 0.2, 16.9 ± 0.5, 5.9 ± 0.2, 7.3 ± 0.1 and 9.7 ± 0.7 μM, respectively. Specifically, the anti-tumor activity assays in vivo found that the inhibitory rates are 23.24 % for 1a, 61.27 % for 1alip, 76.06 % for 1aTlip. It is obvious that the targeted liposomes entrapped iridium(III) compound greatly enhance anti-cancer efficacy. Additionally, 1alip, 1blip and 1clip or targeted 1aTlip, 1bTlip and 1cTlip can effectively restrain the cell colony and proliferation in the G0/G1 period. 1alip, 1blip, 1clip, 1aTlip, 1bTlip and 1cTlip can increase reactive oxygen species (ROS) concentration, arouse a decline in the mitochondrial membrane potential and promote Ca2+ release. RNA-sequence was applied to examine the signaling pathways. Taken together, the liposomes or targeted liposomes encapsulated compounds trigger cell death by way of apoptosis, autophagy, ferroptosis, disruption of mitochondrial function and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Chen
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Wenlong Li
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Gechang Li
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | | | - Chunxia Huang
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Hua Nie
- Jiaying University, Meizhou, 514031, PR China.
| | - Lijuan Liang
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Yi Wang
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Yunjun Liu
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China.
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Liang L, Yang Y, Liu H, Yuan F, Yuan Y, Li W, Huang C, Chen J, Liu Y. Synthesis, characterization, anticancer efficacy evaluation of ruthenium(II) and iridium(III) polypyridyl complexes toward A549 cells. J Biol Inorg Chem 2023; 28:421-437. [PMID: 37097484 DOI: 10.1007/s00775-023-01997-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2022] [Accepted: 03/14/2023] [Indexed: 04/26/2023]
Abstract
A new ligand DFIP (2-(dibenzo[b,d]furan-3-yl)-1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline) and its two complexes iridium(III) [Ir(ppy)2(DFIP)](PF6) (ppy = 2-phenylpyridine, Ir1) and ruthenium(II) [Ru(bpy)2(DFIP)](PF6)2 (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine, Ru1) were synthesized and characterized. The anticancer effects of the two complexes on A549, BEL-7402, HepG2, SGC-7901, HCT116 and normal LO2 cells were tested by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) method. Complex Ir1 shows high cytotoxic activity on A549, BEL-7402, SGC-7901 and HepG2, Ru1 exhibits moderate anticancer activity toward A549, BEL-7402 and SGC-7901 cells. The IC50 values of Ir1 and Ru1 toward A549 are 7.2 ± 0.1 and 22.6 ± 1.4 μM, respectively. The localization of complexes Ir1 and Ru1 in the mitochondrial, intracellular accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, and the changes of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and cytochrome c (cyto-c) were investigated. Apoptosis and cell cycle were detected by flow cytometry. Immunogenic cell death (ICD) was used to detect the effects of Ir1 and Ru1 on the A549 using a confocal laser scanning microscope. The expression of apoptosis-related proteins was detected by western blotting. Ir1 and Ru1 can increase the intracellular ROS levels and release cyto-c, reduce the MMP, leading to the apoptosis of A549 cells and blocking the A549 cells at the G0/G1 phase. Additionally, the complexes caused a decrease of the expression of polyADP-ribose polymerase (PARP), caspase 3, Bcl-2 (B-cell lymphoma-2), PI3K (phosphoinositide-3 kinase) and upregulated the expression of Bax. All these findings indicated that the complexes exert anticancer efficacy to induce cell death through immunogenic cell death, apoptosis, and autophagy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lijuan Liang
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, People's Republic of China
| | - Yan Yang
- Department of Pharmacy, Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, Guangzhou, 510317, People's Republic of China.
| | - Haimei Liu
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, People's Republic of China
| | - Fang Yuan
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, People's Republic of China
| | - Yuhan Yuan
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, People's Republic of China
| | - Wenlong Li
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, People's Republic of China
| | - Chunxia Huang
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, People's Republic of China
| | - Jing Chen
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, People's Republic of China
| | - Yunjun Liu
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, People's Republic of China.
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Drug Delivery, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Center of Topical Precise Drug Delivery System, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, People's Republic of China.
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Chen Y, Gu Y, Hu H, Liu H, Li W, Huang C, Chen J, Liang L, Liu Y. Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of liposome entrapped iridium(III) complexes toward SGC-7901 cells. J Inorg Biochem 2023; 241:112134. [PMID: 36706490 DOI: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2023.112134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2022] [Revised: 01/18/2023] [Accepted: 01/18/2023] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
In this study, two new iridium(III) polypyridyl complexes [Ir(bzq)2(DIPH)](PF6) (bzq = deprotonated benzo[h]quinoline, DIPH = 4-(2,5-dibromo-4-(1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthrolim-2-yl)-4-hydroxybutan-2-one) (Ir1) and [Ir(piq)2(DIPH)](PF6) (piq = deprotonated 1-phenylisoquinoline) (Ir2) were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, HRMS, 1H and 13C NMR. The cytotoxic activity of Ir1, Ir2, Ir1lipo and Ir2lipo against cancer cells SGC-7901, HepG2, A549, HeLa, B16 and normal NIH3T3 cells in vitro was evaluated using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl)-2,5-biphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) method. Ir1 and Ir2 showed no cytotoxic activity, but their liposome-entrapped Ir1 (Ir1lipo) and Ir2 (Ir2lipo) showed significant cellular activity, especially sensitive to SGC-7901 with IC50 values of 4.7 ± 0.2 and 12.4 ± 0.5 μM, respectively. The cellular uptake, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) localization, autophagy, tubulin polymerization, glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA) and release of cytochrome c were investigated to explore the mechanisms of apoptosis. The calreticulin (CRT), heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) were also explored. Western blotting showed that Ir1lipo and Ir2lipo inhibited PI3K (phosphoinositide-3 kinase), AKT (protein kinase B), p-AKT and activated Bcl-2 (B-cell lymphoma-2) protein and apoptosis-regulated factor caspase 3 (cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase-3) and cleaving PARP (poly ADP-ribose polymerase). The results demonstrated that Ir1lipo and Ir2lipo induce cell apoptosis through targeting the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), cause oxidative stress damage, inhibiting PI3K/AKT signaling pathway, immunogenic cell death (ICD) and inhibit the cell growth at G2/M phase.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yichuan Chen
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China
| | - Yiying Gu
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China
| | - Huiyan Hu
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China
| | - Haimei Liu
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China
| | - Wenlong Li
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China
| | - Chunxia Huang
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China
| | - Jing Chen
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China
| | - Lijuan Liang
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China
| | - Yunjun Liu
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Drug Delivery, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Center of Topical Precise Drug Delivery System, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou 510006, PR China.
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Yuan Y, Zhang Y, Chen J, Huang C, Liu H, Li W, Liang L, Wang Y, Liu Y. Synthesis, biological evaluation of novel iridium(III) complexes targeting mitochondria toward melanoma B16 cells. Eur J Med Chem 2023; 247:115046. [PMID: 36577214 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2022.115046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2022] [Revised: 12/12/2022] [Accepted: 12/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
A new ligand 2-(1E,3E,5E,7E)-2,6-dimethyl-8-(2,6,6-trimethylcyclohex-1-yl)octa-1,2,5,7-tetraen-1-yl)-1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline (DTOIP) was synthesized and combined with [Ir(ppy)2Cl]2·2H2O (ppy = deprotonated Hppy: 2-phenylpyridine), [Ir(piq)2Cl]2·2H2O (piq = deprotonated Hpiq: 1-phenylisoquinoline) and [Ir(bzq)2Cl]2·2H2O (bzq = deprotonated Hbzq: benzo[h]quinolone) to form [Ir(ppy)2(DTOIP)](PF6) (Ir1), [Ir(piq)2(DTOIP)](PF6) (Ir2), and [Ir(bzq)2(DTOIP)](PF6) (Ir3), respectively. The complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), 1H NMR and 13C NMR. The antiproliferative activity of the complexes toward B16, BEL-7402, Eca-109 and normal LO2 cells was evaluated by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) method. Complexes Ir1, Ir2 and Ir3 showed high antiproliferative activity against B16 cells with a low IC50 values of 0.4 ± 0.1, 2.0 ± 0.1 and 1.4 ± 0.09 μM, respectively. Three-dimensional (3D) in vitro cell models also demonstrated that the iridium(III) complexes have a remarkable cytotoxicity to B16 cells. The experiments of cellular uptake, mitochondrial localization, and intracellular distribution of the drugs proved that the three iridium(III) complexes can enter the mitochondria, leading to the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), decreased glutathione (GSH) levels, causing an increase of intracellular ROS content, and DNA damage, finally inducing apoptosis. RNA-sequence and bioinformatics analyses were used to analyze the differentially expressed genes and enriched biology processes. Antitumor in vivo demonstrated that complex Ir1 (5 mg/kg) exhibits a high efficacy to inhibit the tumor growth with an inhibitory rate of 71.67%. These results show that the complexes may be potent anticancer candidate drugs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuhan Yuan
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Yuanyuan Zhang
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Jing Chen
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Chunxia Huang
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Haimei Liu
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Wenlong Li
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Lijuan Liang
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Yi Wang
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China
| | - Yunjun Liu
- School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China.
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